This invention is directed to a toy which has a supplemental body portion which is movable with respect to the main body portion between a first and second position and when the supplemental body portion is in the first position a guide wheel on the bottom of the toy supports a greater percentage of the weight of the toy than when the supplemental portion is in the second position, resulting in the toy following a different pathway of travel between when the supplemental portion is in the first position and when it is in the second position. In the preferred embodiment of the toy, the toy is formed as a jack-in-the-box and the supplemental portion includes a lid which moves between a closed position and an open position. The jack portion of the jack-in-the-box toy is utilized to move the lid between the closed and open positions.
A variety of jack-in-the-box type toys are known. Most of these are directed for use by very small children and, upon turning of a crank or the like, the lid of the toy will pop open, releasing the jack to surprise the user of the toy. The fascination of this type of toy is limited to a very young age group. As the child increases in his sophistication with age, the mere popping open of the top of the jack-in-the-box and the exposure of the jack portion accompanying this move causes the child to lose interest.
Many vehicular type toys are known which are capable of moving in a pathway across a support surface. These range from normal cars and trucks to a variety of other wheeled vehicles, including movable robots and the like. Most of these vehicles are capable of movement only along a particular set pathway, that is, they are capable of either linear movement, if in fact, all the wheels are fixed, or, possibly, movement in a circular manner if one or more wheels are set at an angle with respect to the remainder of the wheels.
Of the majority of the above described vehicles, only certain very complicated vehicles, which include a radio controlled steering mechanism. or a flexible cable or the like, are able to randomly move from a linear pathway to a curved pathway. Normally, these vehicles are geared to slightly older children and their cost and complexity precludes their use by pre-schoolers and early grammer school age children.
It is believed that a vehicle which is capable of traveling in both a curved pathway and a linear pathway without sophisticated or complicated controls would have considerable play value for pre-school and early grammer school age children. Furthermore, it is believed that a vehicle which incorporated the jack-in-the-box concept in conjunction with the variety of movements noted in the preceding sentence would be extremely interesting and enjoyable for this age children.